Aircraft consume a non-negligible quantity of electricity in their internal equipment. That electrical power is generally produced by an alternator that takes off mechanical power from the gas turbine. It is therefore advantageous to have means for producing electrical power that do not increase the fuel consumption of the aircraft.
Furthermore, thermoelectric cells are known that are capable of producing electrical power under the effects of a temperature difference applied thereto.
Accompanying FIG. 1 shows such a thermoelectric cell 10. It is essentially constituted by a semiconductor junction made up of two elements 12 and 14 that are doped respectively to be of type N and of type P. Those two elements are connected together by an electrical conductor 16 and they have respective electrical connections forming terminals 18 and 19. Usually, that assembly constituting a unit thermoelectric cell is mounted between two electrically insulating supports such as the supports 20 and 22, for example, that facilitate fastening such a cell on another component. Naturally, a plurality of individual cells may be associated with one another.
It is also known that the efficiency or yield of such cells is directly proportional to the temperature difference that exists between the two faces of such a cell, e.g. constituted by the insulating supports 20 and 22.
PCT patent application WO 2005/017331 describes a thermoelectric power generator for a gas turbine engine, in particular for propelling aircraft.
In that patent application, proposals are made to place ring-shaped sets of thermoelectric cells around a hot zone, but without the mounting conditions for said tests of thermoelectric cells being specified.
Unfortunately, as mentioned above, the efficiency of such equipment for producing electrical power depends very directly on the temperature difference between the hot source and the cold source between which the thermoelectric cells are interposed.